Payroll Changes
There is no upgrade to Online Filing Manager this year. Therefore, you should continue to use Online Filing Manager (4.01.00) to send RTI submissions to HMRC. The latest release covers National Insurance additions, Health and Social Care Levy, Scottish Court Orders, P60 design, P60 History, RTI and Council Tax Attachment or Earnings Orders.
National Insurance – Freeports and Veterans
The calculation routine has been updated and 5 new National Insurance (NI) category letters have been added to support Employers National Insurance relief for Veterans and Freeports.
The new NI category letters are:
- Freeports – F, I, L and S
- Veterans – V
Health and Social Care Levy
On 7 September 2021, the Government announced the creation of a new Health and Social Care levy which commences from 6 April 2022. For the 2022/23 tax year the levy will be implemented by a simple increase in the rate of Class 1 NIC (including Class1A and Class 1B paid by employers on employee expenses and benefits) and Class 4 NIC. The increase will be 1.25% for employees, employers and the self-employed, so a total increase of 2.5% in respect of employed workers (split between the employer and employee) and 1.25% for the self-employed.
For 2022/23, HMRC are also requesting employers to include a generic message on payslips, where possible, to show that the increase in National Insurance Contributions is for the Health and Social Care Levy. Support KB article 2232390 will provide Partners with the relevant guidance on to how to include the ‘Social Care Levy’ text on payslips.
From April 2023, the calculation will be replaced with a new tax – the “Health and Social Care Levy”.
Scottish Court Orders
The bands, rates etc. for Scottish court orders have been updated for April 2022 and applies to Earnings Arrestment and Current Maintenance Arrestment order types.
P60 design
Some minor amendments have been made to the P60 design.
Tax Year History – Re-print of P60
A new re-print P60 facility has been added to the Payroll Processing – History – Tax Year form and allows a re-print of an employee’s P60 for a prior tax year, with the P60 being based on revised data, or on original data (e.g. depending on whether the data for the tax year has been revised or not).
Real Time Information (RTI)
Opera’s RTI file formats have been updated to comply with HMRC specific ‘tax year related fields’ in the file format of the FPS and EPS XML files for the 2022/23 tax year.
From 2022/23 the EPS has a new field for entry of a Corporate Tax Reference (COTAX) which is required where CIS Deductions are being claimed for; if there are no CIS deductions being claimed on the EPS then COTAX does not need to be entered.
Statutory rates, bands, etc.
The release also includes the usual adjustments to tax and NI bands/rates, statutory payment amounts etc. The student loans and auto enrolment thresholds have not yet been approved prior to the release. Therefore, a separate communication will follow.
Council Tax Attachment of Earnings Orders (CTAEOs)
The calculation and thresholds for CTAEOs have always applied to both England and Wales. However, the Welsh government entered a consultation period late last year (ended 31 Dec 2021) with a view of changing CTAEOs thresholds for Welsh Orders from 1 April 2022.
The outcome of the consultation period is still unknown and with no information available no changes can therefore be implemented in this release.
More information will follow on this.
General maintenance
The release also includes some general maintenance. If you are an Opera 3 user and you would like to see a full list of corrected defects, you can head to the Pegasus Information Support Portal.
